(b Richmond, in, 23 Oct 1923). American composer. He studied with Sowerby in Chicago (1938-9) and with Thomson (1944) and Diamond in New York, also attending the Curtis Institute (1943) and the Juilliard School. From 1949 to 1958 he was based in Paris, though spent two of those years in Morocco: his published diaries of this and later periods are flamboyantly candid. His large output includes symphonies, instrumental pieces and choral music, though he has been most productive and successful as a composer of songs, latterly almost entirely in extended cyclic structures.

The Concise Grove Dictionary of Music. Copyright © 1994 by Oxford University Press, Inc.. All rights reserved.